Emporia State Student Foundation celebrates ‘Right Now’

February 21, 2014

It’s become the anthem of Hornet Nation, the creation of two Emporia State University students who wanted to inspire a culture of optimism and pride.

Performing as Ten2One, Gabe Andrews and Benny Bowden debuted their hype song, “Right Now,” more than a year ago at a back-to-school event for fellow students. Now, the duo has premiered the video version of the song.

The Feb. 20 “Celebrate Right Now: Dance Party and Video Release” filled downtown Emporia’s Granada Theatre with a party atmosphere reminiscent of the time last fall when a video crew spent a day recording Andrews, Bowden, and a campus full of students recruited as extras for the performance.

Judging by Twitter responses to the video during its premiere, the crowd thinks it’s a hit.

“#RightNow I've never been more proud to be a Hornet! @Ten2OneMusic you guys rocked!” tweeted one student. “One of the coolest things ESU has ever done!” another posted.

Along with kicking off the “Right Now” music video release, the dance party was a fundraiser for the Emporia State Student Foundation which sponsored the event. Ten2One performed other songs and mixed additional music to set the evening’s party theme. “This is a huge day for us, and we want to thank everyone who helped make it happen,” said Bowden.

“You’ve inspired us all,” said Dr. Michael D. Shonrock, president, at a reception prior to the video’s premiere. Shonrock makes a cameo appearance in the video, which brought a loud round of cheers and applause when the scene flashed on the screen Thursday night.

“What we’re trying to do is promote our Hornet Nation,” said DenaSue Potestio, president and CEO of the Emporia State Foundation, which sponsored production of the “Right Now” music video as a musical tie to Now & Forever: The Campaign for Emporia State University.

“We want this to become not only a theme of our Now and Forever campaign, but also a kind of video record of the energy and enthusiasm that is driving Emporia State toward a very bright future,” she said.

Andrews, a senior business marketing major, and Bowden, a senior majoring in digital audio recording, are both from El Dorado.

“Ever since we started making music, we've been talking about doing a song for the college we go to,” said Bowden in an earlier interview. “We would always see kids from D-1 schools making songs that go viral, and we noticed how well the students at those schools responded to the songs.”